Shibori (シ ポ リ, to squeeze liquid out) is a play by which you squeeze the opponent's stones into an inefficient dumpling shape. Often a successful squeeze includes sacrificing one or more stones to make the opponent's shape bad first.
The squeeze wrings out the liberties of a group of your opponent's stones by a combination of atari moves and/or atari threats.
Squeeze plays are very rewarding and normally quite easy to spot. With a bit more practice, you can also see how to set up a squeeze by forcing your opponent into a bad shape before, and conversely, how to avoid being squeezed yourself.
In this example, after White plays , Black invites the cut with
, sacrifices
...
... in order to force with with and squeezes with
and
- ending up with good shape and leaving White in a dango shape.
Black continues to squeeze White, making territory in the process.
White's group is still weak.
In some cases, the squeeze can be so efficient that the opponent is captured. In this example, Black sacrifices the marked stone to squeeze with and
and subsequently kills with
.
-- Morten Pahle (10k)
Before connecting, White pushed a little bit into the center with . Black could not resist
. Instead of trying to save the marked stone, White plays
.
Followed by , which seals the black group in.
Black must play , leaving him with a very bad shape, and White plays out to
, guarding against a cut at a, and sealing off Black's escape route through b.
Another example:
Consider this position and focus on the cut at a. Your first reaction may be that Black doesn't need to protect the cut if the ladder works for him, and that he needs to protect if the ladder works for White. However this analysis is incorrect.
Black has a clever defense if White cuts. He starts with an atari at and then plays a net at
. If White now plays at a or b, she will be caught in an inescapable atari, so there is only one possibility left.
She plays atari at , and again at
when Black connects. Her plan is to run out at b if Black pulls out the stone at a.
However Black now plays a tesuji at , which sets up the squeeze. Since White is in atari, she has no choice but to capture at
.
After the capture, Black again plays atari at , and again White has no choice but to defend. After
, it is clear that the white cut didn't work.
For reference, the starting position is the result of this rather common san-san invasion under the black hoshi stone.
This completes the position. Verify for yourself that against the cut neither the net above nor the one to come works if White has a stone on one of the marked spots. In go terms this means that the position has some bad aji for Black. He needs to remember this in the continuation of the game, because in some other sequence later in the game White may play on one of these spots for another reason and in doing so enable the cut.
In position "White cuts!" there is another way to capture the cutting stone, which doesn't employ squeeze though.
One may verify that cannot escape. The strongest reply...
(, of course, threatens snap-back at a.
at a wouldn't be as good since Black would depend on more context, for instance, having a liberty at b.)
See also
Authors: